Education System In Ireland Research Articles

Fulfilling the unmet potential: Harnessing ambition, autonomy, and agility in Northern Ireland's education system

AbstractDespite the divisions within Northern Ireland's education system along religious and academic lines, it has managed to maintain relative stability, or at least a functional inertia, over the past four decades. The full potential, however, of this system and in particular, the Northern Ireland Curriculum (NIC), has yet to be realised. This paper presents a comprehensive exploration of the intricate interplay between the NIC and Initial Teacher Education (ITE), bringing to the fore the footprint of Lawrence Stenhouse. It critically examines the salient features of the NIC, particularly its alignment with Stenhouse's pedagogical tenets, and its subsequent ramifications on ITE, for both its content and pedagogical strategies. The ambitions are, however, not without their challenges. The overarching shadow of an exam‐centric system stymies the NIC's full realisation, presenting a dichotomy between curriculum goals and pragmatic educational realities. The absence of a coherent Teacher Professional Learning framework also inhibited curriculum development. The Learning Leaders strategy, although yet to be implemented due to the collapse of the Northern Ireland Assembly and consequently lack of financial support, has the potential to pick up the baton of reform and help teachers and school leaders move closer to implementing the NIC in the way it was intended. The paper concludes by identifying the probable, possible, plausible and preferred ways forward for NI's education system.

From ‘sojourning’ to standards: a critical reflection on the evolution of initial teacher education policy in Ireland

ABSTRACT Given the many foci and functions of the education system in Ireland in both the colonial era (up to 1921) and since, teacher selection, training/education, recruitment and management have been topical and contested issues. This article traces key trends in the historical evolution of initial teacher education (ITE) policy for primary teachers in Ireland over the past two centuries, moving from a period where training involved ‘sojourning’ around schools to the contemporary era where ITE programmes are underpinned by elaborate and prescriptive standards. Framed within the wider international socio-political context, a particular emphasis is placed on the implications of policy developments in the past decade that have fundamentally altered the landscape of ITE. The paper argues that Ireland’s contemporary ITE policy is characterised by a range of tensions and debates that arise from the interface of its historical lineage with contemporary global discourses.

Education in Ireland: accessible without discrimination for all?

ABSTRACT While Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights articulates a comprehensive right to education, truly accessible education remains elusive in many countries. This article considers the accessibility of education in Ireland in law, policy and practice, drawing on semi-structured interviews with politicians, educators, and representatives of various relevant interest groups. The Irish education system, once described as a ‘Church-State co-operative’, has historically been controlled by the Catholic Church, but in recent times has been obliged to adapt in order to cater for an increasingly ethnically and culturally diverse school population. The article concludes that a variety of exclusionary practices have facilitated the establishment of a de facto two-tiered education system in Ireland, with marginalised groups such as asylum-seekers; religious minorities; and the indigenous Traveller community particularly disadvantaged. A recent process of legislative reform addresses some key issues, such as admission policies, which distinguish prospective students on the basis of religion, past pupil parents, and when their name was placed on the enrolment list. However, it remains to be seen whether these reforms will significantly enhance access in practice.

‘Soft barriers’ – The impact of school ethos and culture on the inclusion of students with special educational needs in mainstream schools in Ireland

The use of ‘soft barriers’ to deter students with special educational needs (SEN) from accessing some schools has been reported in the Irish media. This article investigates the influence of ethos and culture on access to and inclusive practice in mainstream schools in Ireland. Ethos and culture are nebulous concepts yet are integral to how schools operate, how they present themselves and how they are perceived by the public. Findings from a small-scale, qualitative research study are used to illustrate this. In the study, the understandings and attitudes of principals, special education teachers and guidance counsellors in mainstream schools in relation to students with Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties (SEBD) are investigated through the use of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. In line with international experiences, an argument is presented suggesting that many sections of the education system in Ireland, while seemingly having been irrevocably transformed in response to national policy on inclusion, preserve very traditional structures, organisation and attitudes due to issues of ethos and culture remaining largely unchallenged in the inclusion debate. This phenomenon appears to have greater impact at post-primary level. Cosmetic, surface-level changes impede meaningful, systemic change in terms of access and inclusive practice.

Irish teachers, starting on a journey of data use for school self-evaluation

With much of the literature on school self-evaluation (SSE) stressing the importance of data use, this article explores how teachers in Irish post-primary schools are coming to terms with this new challenge. Since 2012, all schools in Ireland are required to engage in SSE for the purpose of improving student outcomes. For the first time, teachers and school leaders are being asked to systematically gather and analyse various types of data, devise improvement plans and implement improvements. Despite such demands, the compulsory education system in Ireland operates within a low-stakes accountability environment, with an absence of published school league tables and no consequences for poor school performance. It is also interesting to explore the introduction of a school improvement process that requires data as evidence for self-evaluation, but where very little data currently exists compared to other jurisdictions and where the discourse of data use in schools is relatively new.This article outlines the experience of 13 post-primary schools that were supported by the DCU Centre for Evaluation, Quality and Inspection to complete an SSE process, during which, each school gathered and analysed a range of data. This study is part of a larger action research project which explores various aspects of the implementation of SSE in schools, including models of support and continuing professional development for schools. This article looks specifically at the use of data by the schools involved. The key research questions ask: what data was gathered by the schools and what was the attitude to and experience of data-use among teachers? In doing so, this article explores some of the current research questions in relation to data use in schools. Overall, the findings indicate that schools gathered a range of data, which was mainly quantitative due to a focus on quantitative target setting. Despite a generally positive attitude to the usefulness of data and the skills learned, participants did not appear convinced that they would be involved in data use on an ongoing basis.

A state examination system and perpetuation of middle-class advantage: an Irish school context

This article explores how a formal state examination system operates as a tool which enables the cultural reproduction of the middle classes in an increasingly market-driven education system in Ireland. It is based on a study of a group of final-year girls approaching the high-stakes terminal Leaving Certificate examination. The success of this reproduction is based on a mutually beneficial partnership between the school and the parents, which ultimately benefits the students. The article examines how the school is successful in this competitive education market place and in upholding the middle-class nature of schooling. The structures of the school also empower parents and students to enhance privilege and academic success. The article concludes by considering the continuing relevance of Bourdieu to social reproduction in education.

Religion and education in Ireland: growing diversity – or losing faith in the system?

This paper examines the evolution of the state-supported denominational education system in Ireland in the context of increasing social diversity, and considers the capacity for incremental change in a system of institutional pluralism hitherto dominated by a single religion. In particular, we examine challenges to the historical arrangements emerging in two recent contentious issues: cuts in special funding for Protestant secondary schools and proposed diversification of the patronage of primary schools, revealing pressures on the dominant role of the Catholic Church and on the privileged place of religion in education. We identify a shift towards a more varied pluralism, or greater ‘diversity of schools’, in which multi- or non-denominational schools now feature more prominently, rather than towards either a secular system or privileged recognition of religious schools. These developments entail a change in the historical balance of religious equality and freedoms: from leaning more towards collective religious freedom and equality among religions, to tilting more towards individual religious freedom and non-discrimination. Yet the limited possibilities of incremental change are suggested by delays in changes of patronage, and the emerging balance displays continuing tensions between individual and collective freedom, clustered around ‘diversity in schools’: the integration of religion in the curriculum, religious instruction in the school day, and the accommodation of children and teachers of other beliefs in religious schools.

Addressing the professional development needs of teachers working in the area of special education/inclusion in mainstream schools in Ireland

This paper gives an account of one aspect of a recent research project that explored dimensions of inclusion in mainstream schools in Ireland. In particular, the working lives of teachers who have specific responsibility for students with disabilities and/or special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools were explored. In Ireland, such teachers are known as learning support or resource or SEN (LS/R/SEN) teachers. The nearest UK equivalent role is that of SEN co‐ordinator, but the responsibilities of the Irish LS/R/SEN teacher role are not as formalised and tend to vary in different school contexts. A key aspect of the research project was to explore the professional development requirements of these teachers. The contention emerges that the professional development requested by teachers was supportive of traditional practices and that these practices more properly belonged to a medical model‐influenced, deficit approach to special education rather than to an inclusive approach to education. As a consequence, it is argued that, instead of responding to gradually evolving change, an alternative, more revolutionary approach to professional development could be adopted to challenge ‘conventional wisdom’ and promote a truly inclusive education system in Ireland.

Dominican Education in Ireland, 1820–1930 (review)

Reviewed by: Dominican Education in Ireland, 1820–1930 Maria Luddy Dominican Education in Ireland, 1820–1930. By Maire M. Kealy, O.P. (Dublin and Portland, OR: Irish Academic Press. 2007. Pp. xx, 236. $32.50 paperback. ISBN 978-0-716-52889-0.) The primary focus of this book is the contribution that women of the Dominican Order made to education in Ireland in the period between 1820 and 1930. The author provides a good context in which this contribution is explored, and in the introduction we are given a clear idea of the “Dominican ethos in education.” There is a short survey of the history of Dominican women in Ireland between 1124 and 1820, and a historiographical section on issues relating to women’s education in Ireland in the nineteenth century. Following this introductory context the author then, in a clear and accessible fashion, details the evolution of Dominican education in Ireland at primary, secondary, and higher levels. Kealy provides a wealth of information on the development of education in Ireland in the nineteenth century. The newly emerging congregations of female religious from the late-eighteenth century conducted boarding schools for the upper classes, with attached free schools for the poor. The lower middle class benefited from the introduction of pay “day schools.” Before the introduction of the National School system of education in Ireland in 1832 there were at least thirty convent schools around the country. It was through their work as educators that nuns played a profound part in socializing the Irish population into formal Catholicism, particularly in the period after the Great Famine. The Dominican sisters, while catering to some extent to the poor, were primarily educators of the Irish Catholic middle class. The sisters utilized the opportunities provided by government for their pupils and took advantage, eventually, of the intermediate examination system to advance the interests of their students. The nuns also played a significant role in advancing university education for Irish women. The Dominican College in Dublin’s Eccles Street was the first establishment in Ireland to make university education possible, through the Royal University system, for Catholic women. With all the emphasis on education Kealy also provides the reader with an account of the ways in which the Dominican community itself evolved in Ireland over the period. We are told of the amalgamation of various communities, the disputes that occurred between the Sisters and some bishops, their dealings with officials from the department of education. There is an excellent account of the formation and work of the Conference of Convent Secondary Schools of Ireland (CCSS). Using a wide variety of sources, including the extensive archives of the Dominicans and a number of oral histories, this work celebrates the trials and tribulations of the Dominican involvement in education at all levels in Irish society. It adds considerably to the growing [End Page 596] literature on female religious and the education of girls and young women in nineteenth-and twentieth-century Ireland. Maria Luddy University of Warwick Copyright © 2010 The Catholic University of America Press

Is there an educational advantage to speaking Irish? An investigation of the relationship between education and ability to speak Irish

In this article new findings are outlined that show a relationship between ability to speak Irish and level of education. The authors' statistical analysis of International Social Survey Programme data from a survey in 2003 on national identity reveals that Irish speakers have been more likely than non Irish speakers to attend university (or equivalent). This likelihood is strongest amongst people who were born in the 1950s and 1960s, and more particularly amongst women rather than men of this age group. This is not the case amongst the youngest age group, perhaps because of developments in the education system and in the economy. The findings are placed in the context of the political use made of both the Irish language and the education system in Ireland historically and more recently. The effect on the Irish language of changes in education, as well as the role of the Irish language as cultural capital and symbolic capital are discussed.

Tackling social exclusion at third level: A profile of participants on access programmes

There is considerable evidence of substantial class inequalities in the education system in Ireland. Studies point to the overemphasis on academic achievement leading to an under‐representation of certain class groups at third level institutions. Significant resources have been allocated to establish targeted access initiatives to address this form of social exclusion. This paper reports the findings of a survey of 266 access students from four third‐level institutions in Ireland. The survey identifies the socio‐economic background of access programme participants, their pre‐programme education level and the primary influences, which motivated them to avail of the access tiative. The paper examines the role, which financial considerations play in the initial decision to participate and the sustained participation of access students. The paper proposes some additional policy directions for the access programme. It recommends that the projected reduction in the numbers attending third‐level institutions should be seen as an appropriate opportunity to expand the access initiative and target those experiencing educational disadvantage.

Proposals to change medical education in Ireland

Michael Martin, Ireland's minister for education, has backed new proposals to change the system of medical education in Ireland fundamentally. At the moment, students who study medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, or pharmacology follow a similar study route to students in the United Kingdom; under the new proposals, however, students would take a two year common course in health …

Educational Cohort Generations in Northern Ireland 1922–1972, with Particular Reference to Males

Although the educational system in Northern Ireland has been subjected to extensive sociological research since the 1970s with extensive debate over the use of the educational system to secure equality of opportunity, a single reference summarizing the history of the Northern Irish educational system with direct reference to social stratification issues does not exist. This article has three main goals. First, conceptual differences between four analytically distinct types of phenomena are clarified: age or maturation effects; cohort or generational effects; historical trends; and period effects. The cohort generation is proposed as a structural variable of equal significance to other variables such as social class, gender, religion or ethnic group. Second, a detailed overview of the changes in the Northern Ireland education system over its first fifty years with particular reference to the implications of these changes for the analysis of social mobility is given. Third, data on changes in educational attainment in the male population of Northern Ireland over the same fifty year period are presented in order to clarify the conceptual discussion and overview of the educational system. Sociologically-determined cohort generations developed for Northern Ireland are used to place this presentation in a valid historical context.

Determinants of Public Examination Entry and Attainment in Mathematics: Evidence on Gender and Gender-type of School from the 1980s and 1990s in Northern Ireland

The paper uses data from three studies of Northern Ireland pupils covering the period 1980 1991 to consider the determinants of examination entry and attainment in Mathematics. The main themes with which the analysis is concerned are gender inequalities, and differentials in the performance of single-sex and co-educational schools. The central focus of the analyses is the degree to which these differentials are significant once the individual, family and school background have been taken into account. Public examination entry and attainment in Mathematics taken at or near the end of compulsory schooling are the outcome measures. The first stage of the analysis is based on a two-level logistic regression of examination entry controlling for family and individual background and, given the selective nature of the Northern Ireland education system, grammar school attendance. In the second stage of the analysis, similar controls are used to examine Mathematics attainment. Overall, school differences relating t...

The Northern Ireland Education System

The Northern Ireland Education System

The Mass Distribution of Geographical Literature in Ulster 1750-1850

The extent to which geographical knowledge penetrated to the common reader has been little studied in the past. This paper examines the question in relation to late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Ulster. In the eighteenth century the material distributed around the countryside consisted largely of fictional and actual accounts of voyages (though some readers had access to better material via private libraries or local reading societies). Early in the nineteenth century the Kildare Place Society of Dublin issued huge numbers of small books, many of geographical interest, and in Ulster these were sold and imitated by two Belfast printer/publishers. By'this time, the coming of a national system of education in Ireland heralded a variety of geographical textbooks, bringing accurate (if dull) geographical knowledge to a wide public for the first time.